Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-11-13
FLASHES OF GENIUS LIGHTING UP THE
HUMBLE SHANTY.
Ths SchOOlmaSter's Puzzle Solved Aftef
POtacted Struggle - Evidence That
Biddy Has Brains as Well
as Beauty.
NeW York Star.

following: How can l put: where there Is
such a-der?
CT can't make anything of it at ALL"
said Mick.
Anything of what?" queried his ia
Their.
"Of this puzzle. Tn schOolmaster has
a big red apple for tn by as'll bring tn
answer on his slate in tn mornin'."
Mr.. Finn laid his pipe on the mantel
and looked over it. Solving puzzles was
not in Mr.. Firms line. He was a coal
HEAVIER. -,
''Sure that things all nonsense" said
he, after a careful survey Of the dlthculty,
adding: whats thin little dots?'
Trims ~coloDs," said Mickey.
Mrs. Finn, who was washing the dishes,
overheard the last remark, and, mislnter-
preting it's meaning, eaid:
''Ye'd betther stop foolin' wild them
printin' things an put some coal IN the
stove" ,.,.
Mickey's face lit up with the glad light
of discovery. II hav' IT. sala ne;
That's what the puzzle ~means-'put coal
on"
cave. b'y, right you are, remarked the
elder Finn, while the fire burned low for
lack of fuel, and even Mrs. Finn became
interested and looked at the further at
tempts of the boy with intense admiration
of his genius. .,
IT'S a great head We hav', me BY"
said Mr.. Finn, foudly; "but fwhat is thin
two little letthers doing thare be them
selves-m tt"
'Impty, is it." said Mrs. Finn. "Shure
that's th' short way of tellin' ye tn stove
is Imply" and she put two shoveltuls OF
coal upon the fire.
'It's brains we hav' as well rs beauty,
Biddy," said Mr.. Finn, looking at his boy
a~nxiously, as though expecting a contra
diction. which did not come for Mickey
wrote the words out after a worm-fence
fashion: ''Impty put coal on" ,
To saw that the Firms were pleased
would be drawing it mild. They were
hilarious. Mike gave his wife a playful
dig in the ribs, to which she replied:
''There's no fool like an ould fool" but
her manner belied her words.
There was silence for fifteen minutes
after this in the Finn shanty. Ihree
heads touched each other over the slip OF
paper, and three pairs of lips muttered IN
articulate sentences, but with no dehnite
result. At last the silence was broken by
little Mike, who said:
"well, it's about a stove an coal, amy
way"
1T can't be the stove-lid," said Mrs.
Finn.
'sNor tn dure," said the head of the
house.
''Thare's tn CRATE" suggested Mike;
"an' that's it, "a sure as thare's eyes IN
tn goat"
Glow is it?' inquired his parents in
unison.
The hoy looked at his prcgenitors pity
ingly, and assumed a dictatOrial attitude.
"Well, We see, that BIS bigeer'n any o
thin other letthers. That names it's a
great +; dye see! So tn puzzle so tarIl
rade like this:
"If tn crate he Imply, put coal on; but
if tn crate he"
as it stuck We are?" said his father.
The hoy was so absorbed in his calcula-
tions that he paid no attention to his IA
Their, hut repeated to himself: period
putting coal on. That's not right"
What's bothering ye now, Mickey
said his mother.
THAT little dot after the B." was the
reply.
tArrah, niver mind it, it's only a fly
speck."
But the hoy knew that the dirt had a
meaning of it's own, aud was not the re-
suit of outside circumstances, so he insisted
on considering it. Then he got his spell
ing book and hunted up the punctuation
marks. He found, what he had never
known before, that each of these little
marks indicated q time duration; that the
comma was used as n brief panse, the
semicolOn a little longer, the colon longer
still, and the period was q full stop, a
place where the reader could get q full
breath before going on. He applied this
theory to the puzzle, and a moment later
threw MP his cap against the wall and
shouted:
"Th'apple's mine! Th'apple's mine!'
II was . long time before the elder
Firms could take in the length and breadth
of their hoy's analysis. No woman
on Conev Island could drive a closer bar
gain with q fish peddler than Mrs. Finn,
but when it came to understanding the
value of little black dots on paper she was
at sea, without rudder or compass, and so
she accepted her sons solution of the puz-
zle. and he wrote it ont carefully 40 that
she could exhibit it to admiring %neighbors
on the morrow.
"If tn crate he empty put coal on, hut
If tn crate he full, stop putting coal on"
"Wpll, that's very well so far az ii
GOES" said Mr.. Finn, rssumiug his pipe
and his scat beside the stove. "but there's
a little weenv puzzle on tn ind O. the
other wan. Ye didn't make that out
yet"
ooh, ho" replied the hoy; 81 won't he
long wild th&t. Shure hav' it near all
now"
aye hav', Ell? Well. read it."
Glow au-I-put-coal-o on whare-there-is'
such-a-"
"why don't you go ou9" laughed his ia,
Their derisivelv, blowing a fantastic ring o.
smoke toward the ceiling.
Mickey looked up to the ceiling, but
there whas no inspiration there. Then hi
went 70 the pail aud drank q dipper full Of
water. That liquid is a very healthtuI
drink. but psychologists say that it doe:
: not stimulate the brain to unwonted &C
: tivity. He WIS almost in despair. Those
four letters and that little black mark
: seemed to him like a huge wall barring his
progress. So little and Insignificant thest
characters seemed, and yet so big with
with impossibility. But the hour wa:
getting late, and he went to bed at hi:
mother's bidding, but not to sleep. Thos,
letters, like fantastic fairies clasped banC
!. in hand, seemed dancing on the walls anC
: over the bed quilt. As he could not SLEEP
be came down stairs. Puttiug his head in
the door he said:
> "Mebbe that adler names somethin
. about the coal strike"
Now, Mickey Finn, you're goin' crazy
about thin puzzles, an if you don't q
, right back Z bed I'll make welts in he,
back ye could put yer finger in" sale
Mrs. Finn.